Civilian trans-Atlantic flight during WWII

Incidentally, if any of you know Forester, would you let him know I sent him a private message over a fortnight ago?

Thanks

Paul

Off the wall, Ian, but fun to consider, certainly. I shall check with Whitney’s daughters.

Whitney would have rated Count Basie, perhaps Billie Holliday, though I doubt he’d have been a fan of Dylan or Springsteen!

Hi Longshot

That’s my problem. If I knew the specific date that Whitney met Daphne off her plane, I suspect I’d know all about her trip, the route, and where she landed.

The only dates I have are for him. After his escape. he was flown to Heston from Gibraltar on the night of 23/24 July. One of the first phone calls he made was to Daphne in her New York hotel. The next dates I have for him are his MI9 de-briefs on 25 and 28 July. She may well have been back by then, but I have no dates for her at all around that time. Hence my dilemma.

It’s not the end of the world. I just have a slightly clunky end to the PoW chapter, and I’d like to add more flavour to it.

Thanks for all the suggestions here.

This is abit off-the-wall, Mr Kenny.

I was looking something up on-line and found a report on those who attended the 20 April 1942 funeral service for Mrs Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. It listed some of the ‘notables’ who attended and in this list were “Mr. and Mrs. John Henry Hammond”. I think several generation of the males in the Hammond family bore the same name, so it could be the father. However, it may perhaps be the John Hammond who was the record producer credited with discovering Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen among others.

This happens to coincide with another of my interests and this John Hammond certainly came from Vanderbilt money, in which case you may wish to know that his papers ended up at Yale University – to be precise the Irving S Gilmore Music Library. Most of the papers are to do with his career in the music business but there may be some family papers there, too. You never know.

If you can specify the date in late July or early August 1942 that Straight met his wife off the plane there is probably enough data around to confirm the aircraft and airline and route

Thanks Ian.

In the 12 months that Whitney was in captivity, the authorities’ approach to publicity about pilots forced down on enemy territory changed enormously. British newspapers and radio ran with the news of his being shot down, so that German troops redoubled their efforts to find the ‘millionaire racing motorist’. By the time of his escape and return to England, the focus was on protecting the escape lines, the people who ran them and the escapers and evaders moving within them. Only the following January, by which time Whitney had been in Cairo, as AOC of 216 Group, for four months, did the papers run with news of his escape and Daphne’s swift return from New York.

But the on-line back issues of Flight are the most wonderful resource.

Best wishes

Paul

FAO Paul Kenny…Do you have more precise date than late July/early August or a clue as to where Whitney Straight met his wife on arrival?

Thanks for letting us know.

My final suggestion is to check the on-line back issues of FLIGHT magazine. Whitney Straight may have featured in its columns during the period in question.

Good luck with the book.

And a special mention to Schneiderman (post 5).

Almost 10 years after my last visit here, here you are, helping me again.

Many thanks, Ralph.

And thanks also to Longshot for the Foynes log tip.

In a vague connection to my previous book, Amherst Villiers’s nephew, Desmond Fitzgerald (the Knight of Glin) provided the salad vegetables for the Clipper from his Glyn estate, just a few miles down the Estuary!

I’ve never visited the Museum, but I’ll make content with them now, thanks.

Particular thanks, Ian, for your many suggestions.

I did indeed try the Richter Library at the University of Miami, but it was they that conformed that PanAm’s passenger lists had been destroyed.

J Boyle (post 4)
Thanks for the tip.

Hello again Forester (re post 3, as I can’t find a quote function).

I’ve checked the entry in Whitney’s diary. It’s from March 1940, he’s getting ready to go to Norway, and he refers specifically to the Clipper. I think we were still in the phoney war at that time, and that last leg from Foynes to Southampton was presumably deemed an appropriate risk.

I accept that strings could have been pulled for Daphne to return on a flight not open to most other civilians, I hadn’t considered that.

The ring you mention, and the elderly member of it, intrigue me…

Robert (post 2)
Thanks, I’m a regular ancestry user, and it’s wonderful for ship manifests – but nothing about flights from the time I’m interested in.

I deserve that, Forester (post 16).

I hope you’ll change your mind about the book in due course.

I do apologise to everyone who’s replied to my question.

When I posted the question after so long away, I neglected to update my email link, and it’s only upon checking this evening that I see so many of you have tried to help.

I regret appearing so rude, and will now set about answering each post.

Paul

It’s only been a week since Mr Kenny started this thread. Who knows what he’s been working on in the meantime, so I’ll give Mr Kenny the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Meanwhile, I’ll put some of the images that I’ve posted above into the thread started by longshot, since they seem to fit as well there:

https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?142170-WWII-flights-To-Lisbon

Please bear with me, it won’t be immediately but I’ll add one or two things along the way.

Pan American Airways Model 314 CLIPPER docked at Darrells Island Bermuda on September 18 1942.

Little annoys me more than people who ask for help here then never come back.

That’s one book I’ll not be recommending

American Export Airlines transatlantic service began around June 1942, I believe, and it was the first airline to employ air stewardesses (as opposed to stewards) on transatlantic flights, some time around the summer of 1942. I’ve never come across a WWII timetable for AEA but this is from the summer of 1945. Note the reference to the BOAC connecting flights to London.